An iconic California luxury resort known to attract celebrities has been held ‘hostage’ for three years by the Beanie Babies billionaire as the beachside property undergoes improvements.
Ty Warner, 78, initially closed off the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to announce a reopening date.
Warner, who is worth an estimated $5.2 billion, purchased the property for $150 million in 2000. He also owns 54-story Four Seasons Hotel in New York City which also remains shut down.
‘We are in the process of getting it back up and reopening, renovating, getting it set to go,’ Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts spokesperson told SFGATE. ‘Right now there’s no timeline. We’re actively moving on improvements, but the timeline is still TBD.’
The beanie babies maker is known to keep a low profile and hasn’t offered a lengthy interview to the media since 1996.
Ty Warner, 78, initially closed off the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to announce a reopening date
Warner, who is worth an estimated $5.2 billion, purchased the property for $150 million in 2000
While Warner is known for his beloved beanie babies, he also keeps an extensive property portfolio extending to his New York hotel property, Sandpiper Golf Club, San Ysidro Ranch and Montecito Club, the news outlet reported.
All of Warner’s properties, aside from his hotels, are in operation.
The Santa Barbara resort was one of his most loved properties known to attract celebrities since it opened in in the 1920s.
‘Since opening in 1927, The Biltmore has been beloved by countless visitors to Montecito and Santa Barbara, including locals, celebrities and heads of state,’ Visit Santa Barbara President Kathy Janega-Dykes told SFGATE.
‘We look forward to the day when the property and its staff can once again become a source of our region’s pride and joy.’
Hotel workers are anxiously waiting for Warner to announce their return to work date as 250 filed a $6 million lawsuit alleging labor disputes and loss of wages, the SF Gate reported.
‘A vast majority have not found comparable employment, resulting in evictions, foreclosure of mortgages, unpaid bills, the inability to purchase health insurance, and severe emotional damages,’ an attorney representing the employees said.
While Warner is known for his beloved beanie babies, he also keeps an extensive property portfolio extending to his New York hotel property, Sandpiper Golf Club, San Ysidro Ranch and Montecito Club
As a result of the hotel temporarily closing its doors, an attorney claimed one employee committed suicide, the news outlet reported.
‘It’s terrible,’ Attorney Bruce Anticouni previously told The New York Post. ‘There have been a lot of sad stories. A lot of employees losing their houses, divorces, and at least one suicide.
The hotel employed more than 400 employees pre-pandemic and never completely laid them off.
‘The company takes the position that they are still employed and will come back at some point – but we’re not seeing evidence of that,’ Anticouni said. ‘It’s been close to 1,000 days already.’
Warner purchased the building in 1999 for $275 million with money earned from his Beanie Babies empire which made him a $3.8 billion fortune
New York’s Four Seasons Hotel is still closed more than a year after other luxury hotels in Midtown Manhattan have reopened
Meanwhile, Warner’s New York property is located on 57th Street in Manhattan on what’s colloquially known as Billionaires’ Row for its string of luxury skyscraper apartment blocks.
The hotel sits abandoned with metal barricades blocking the front entrance.
The fact the Four Seasons has not reopened its doors means it is the outlier compared to its luxury rivals including the Ritz-Carlton, the Lotte New York Palace Hotel, The St. Regis, the Carlyle Hotel, and the Mandarin Oriental, New York, which all reopened more than a year ago and are benefitting from the resurgence in luxury travel.
Four Seasons, which operates more than 100 hotels around the world under the flag, does not actually own them outright and instead relies on different owners to operate them.
Warner is said to be refusing to pay the upkeep fees which need to be paid whether the hotel makes a profit or not.
He has so far batted away the request, instead suggesting the fees be adjusted in accordance with whether the hotel makes a profit.
‘It’s clear that Four Seasons and Ty Warner don’t see eye-to-eye on very much, which makes it difficult to reach an agreement and move forward,’ one source told the New York Post.
In August, former hotel employees sued Warner and Four Seasons in federal court with claims they were ‘purposefully stalling the reopening’ in order to avoid paying millions of dollars in unpaid wages and severance.
Warner was sentenced in 2014 to two years of probation for tax evasion. He maintained a secret offshore account in Switzerland, but managed to avoid prison time for his philanthropic deeds, a judge said at the time.
